1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to card scanners, and more particularly, to a card scanner which is used by a blackjack dealer to determine if the dealer has "blackjack" prior to continuing to deal to the other players.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Blackjack is a card game often played in casinos. The game is played by a dealer dealing a hand of two cards face-up to every player and one card face-up and one card face-down to himself or herself. Each card has an associated value identified by the patterns and characters on the card. A card with a numerical character has a value equal to that of the number on the card. A card with a "J," "Q," or "K" character has a value of ten. A card with an "A" character has a value of one or eleven (for the purposes of the invention, "A" cards have a value of eleven). If the value of the dealer's hand totals twenty-one with his first two cards, he has "blackjack" and wins. Another way to express it is if the dealer's hand is an Ace and either a 10, Jack, Queen, or King, the dealer has blackjack. Traditionally, the dealer determines the value of the down-card by "peeking" at it. If the dealer does not have "blackjack," the game continues. If the dealer has "blackjack" he or she wins and the other players do not play out their hands and a new game can start immediately.
To insure against security breaches and resulting loss of revenue, casinos instituted a "no peek" rule that prevents dealers from peeking at their down-card. An unscrupulous dealer can peek at the down-card to provide an accomplice with the value of the dealer's cards. With that knowledge, the accomplice makes a more informed gambling decision when playing out his or her hand. This informed gambling decision significantly tilts the odds of winning away from the casino. With the odds tilted away from the casino, the casino loses potential revenue.
The blackjack game is significantly slowed by the "no peek" rule, which costs the casino revenue. The more games of blackjack played, the more potential revenue for the casino. With the "no peek" rule, every player in every game plays out his or her hand. Obviously, this is true for when the dealer is dealt "blackjack" initially. Therefore, when the dealer does get "blackjack" initially, the game continues longer than necessary, lowering the number of games of blackjack played at a table. Since a casino's revenue is directly proportional to the number of games of blackjack played, casinos lose potential revenue when less games are played.
Since certain casinos established the "no peek" rule more than a decade ago, they have been searching for a way for a dealer to know if he or she is initially dealt "blackjack" without breaching security. One possible avenue identified is a device that notifies the dealer when he or she has "blackjack" without the dealer lifting any part of the down-card off the surface of the blackjack table. People have laid out numerous paths to achieve the desired target. Unfortunately, each path attempted leaves unaddressed certain concerns of the casinos.
One partially successful route followed by those seeking a solution involved marked cards and a mark sensor mounted in the surface of the playing table. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,110,134 5,219,172, and 5,224,712 to Laughlin et al., a card mark sensor is mounted in the surface of the playing table. This allows the dealer to slide the down-card onto the sensor without lifting any portion of the card. However, this route is only partially successful because standard blackjack cards can not be used. This invention requires the cards to be specially marked with either a photoelectrically detectable mark, a magnetic mark, a light-polarizing mark, or something similar. The required use of specially marked cards instead of standard playing cards compels further development of a more acceptable solution.
Another route prescribed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,104 to Miller involves the use of a bar code reader and bar code marked cards. As this design requires marked cards, it leaves unaddressed the same concerns as the Laughlin patents.
Another partially successful route laid out by U.S. Pat. No. 5,039,102 to Miller describes the use of a mirror arranged such that the dealer can view a reflected image of a portion of the face of the down-card. The dealer slides the down-card over a first viewport in the surface of the table. A mirror mounted under the first viewport reflects the down-card's image up through a second viewport in the table. This image is visible only to the dealer. Again, this patent specifically calls for the use of marked cards, still leaving some casino's concerns unaddressed. A further limitation of this route is that the dealer has to be within a certain height range to view the card image through the second viewport.
One attempt to use standardized blackjack cards did not stand up to the rigors of the casino environment. This attempt utilized an optical reader that looked at eight points on a standard "Bee" brand play card. The point locations were such that theoretically the playing cards could be identified just from comparing these eight points. However, due to dust and lint on the cards and changes in room temperature, this attempt resulted in a device that required excessive adjustments and calibrations. These restrictions limited the usefulness of this approach.
Another attempt to use standardized blackjack cards involved the use of a video camera and screen. However, the costs involved with this type of equipment makes this approach expensive. Further, since the dealer would know the value of the card, security against unethical dealers is a problem also. The security aspect could be alleviated to a certain extent by using marked cards, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,104 to Miller, but then the concerns of using marked cards surfaces.
It is clear that there has existed a long and unfilled need in the prior art for a device to reliably announce if a blackjack dealer is initially dealt "blackjack" without the dealer knowing the value of his or her down-card, without the use of a specially marked deck of cards, and in an economically viable way.